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C37— May 3rd
Posted on August 27, 2022by UntamedS
On Sunday morning, there weren’t many people in the cafe.
Wen Zheng wore a casual outfit today, and his aura of a domineering president was unabated.
“Mr. Wen, thanks for what happened last time.”
Xia Zongqi’s tone was sincere, he was already very surprised by Wen Zheng’s appearance at their Xia family’s reception, then Jiang Zhengqin made a scene and he was worried about upsetting Wen Zheng, but he didn’t expect that although Wen Zheng was upset, he asked for his advice when he drove Jiang Zhengqin away, giving the Xia family face.
The most magical thing was that he even added Wen Zheng on WeChat, and with Wen Zheng’s help, a big project was made possible. He wanted to go to the door to thank him but was afraid of being misunderstood as having an ulterior motive, so he only sent his assistant a gift to express his feelings.
“Mr. Wen is looking for me today?”
“I need a favor from Mr. Xia for a small matter.” Wen Zheng stopped stirring the coffee in his cup, he raised his eyes to look at Xia Zongqi.
“You did our family a big favor last time, not to mention a small matter, as long as our Xia family can do it, ten things are not a problem.”
“Then I’ll say it straight.” Wen Zheng took out a photo from his bag and handed it to Xia Zongqi.
“Do you know this person?”
Xia Zongqi looked at the middle-aged man and woman in the photo, dressed plainly, they were side by side like a husband and wife.
“Young master Xia, if you don’t know, you can go back and ask your father before telling me.”
“I don’t know.” Xia Zongqi looked at it several times but he didn’t recognize them, “Mr. Wen wait a moment, I’ll send it to my father.”
Xia Zongqi picked up his phone and took two pictures in a row, and after sending WeChat and worrying that his father didn’t see it, he called him.
“Dad, help me look at these two people in the photo.”
Knowing that his son had an appointment with Mr Wen today, the caller didn’t dare to be slow and said ‘yes’ several times.
After a while, Xia Zongqi received a reply from his father.
[No, but they seem familiar.]
[is Mr. Wen looking for someone?]
[Ask Mr. Wen if I can send it to others. They look a little familiar but I can’t remember it for a moment.] “Mr. Wen, my father said they looked familiar. Can he send it to other people for confirmation ?”
“Yes.”
During the waiting time, Xia Zongqi was having a hard time, but Wen Zheng was drinking coffee with his expression as usual.
Half an hour later, Xia Zongqi received a reply, and his eyes lit up for a moment, “There it is.”
“My father said it looked a bit familiar, but it’s been too long, so he’s not sure if it’s a mistake.”
“He can speak freely.”
“Mr. Wen, the couple on the photo looks a bit like the staff I saw in the orphanage some years ago, but I can’t be sure.”
Wen Zheng’s eyes flashed, there was really something wrong.
This couple was the one who wanted to recognize Xingxing, but there were many loopholes in their words, not like they were really looking for the child, but more like they had ulterior motives.
After returning to C City, Wen Zheng sent to investigate the couple and got the information that they were ordinary factory workers who received a large amount of compensation after an accidental work injury.
But according to Lu Xiaofei, the couple didn’t seem to have any injuries, and this large amount of compensation …… came from a strange source. It was similar to what he guessed, and it was really related to the orphanage again.
They had two suites in the downtown area of E City, even if it was compensation money, it was too much, right? But the house wasn’t in the name of the couple, but the couple’s only son.
They didn’t live in the city on a regular basis either. They had a self-built house in the town, and wore the same plain clothes as the residents of the town, so no one would notice any problems at all.
Fortunately, Xingxing was smart and had Ms. Lu to keep an eye on them, otherwise they would have almost passed him by again. Wen Zheng’s fist tightened, “Is it the Yihe orphanage?”
“Yes.” Mr. Xia on the other end of the phone was a bit confused, why would Wen Zheng know? “Mr. Wen, is there something wrong with that couple?”
“That would not be something for Mr. Xia to inquire about.” Wen Zheng’s eyes were cold, “In fact, I am curious, fourteen years ago, Mr. Xia didn’t have such capacity, where did you get so much money to donate to Yihe orphanage?”
Chief Xia took a breath of cold air in backwards, “This, Chief Wen. Although I don’t know what you are investigating, but this matter certainly has nothing to do with me. I admit, we’re just a burgeoning family, I only got up in the past few years, I really don’t know about the previous matters.”
“I won’t ask much about the rest, I just want to ask where did you get so much money to donate to the orphanage?” Wen Zheng’s voice was calm, and Xia Zongqi, who was sitting across the table, couldn’t help but hold his breath, afraid that his dad would say something that would make Wen Zheng unhappy.
“Dad, just say what you have to say.” Xia Zongqi could see that Wen Zheng was investigating something, and as long as they didn’t get in his way, Wen Zheng wouldn’t do anything to them.
“Okay.” Mr. Xia sighed and said somewhat cautiously, “Mr. Wen, this matter should be discussed in person.”
Wen Zheng and Xia Zongqi left from the cafe, found a private restaurant that was more secretive, and booked a private box to wait for Mr. Xia to come over.
Within half an hour, Mr. Xia panted and pushed open the door of the box.
“Mr. Wen.”
“No need for polite words, I just want to know what’s going on.”
“More than ten years ago, the Xia family was a small company with few staff. Mr. Wen may not know that in the early years I worked as an advertising company. Later, someone found me and said they wanted to negotiate a deal with me.”
“I signed an advertising business contract with them for half a year, with a monthly advertising fee of one million. But in reality, the contract was a front, they didn’t need me to do any advertising, they would just give money to the company account every month, and then I would donate the money to the orphanage.”
Wen Zheng had previously found out that the Xia family would donate to the orphanage every month, and for large companies the daily flow of water was more than one million, but the Xia family was only a small private company more than ten years ago, and there were only a few employees, and the owner, Mr. Xia, had to run business door-to-door like a salesman.
Such a small company couldn’t donate a million a month to the orphanage ……
“What benefit do you get from it?”
“They gave me a hundred thousand dollars a month as a reward.”
Once Mr. Xia finished, Wen Zheng looked at him coldly, “You dare to earn money from unknown sources?”
“I couldn’t help it, my little company is going out of business, I had my wife and children to feed at home, the staff didn’t have it easy, several salesmen were running their legs in the cold, but we still couldn’t find a company willing to cooperate.”
“When I was young, I didn’t know, I didn’t think about anything else. Knowing that it was a donation to the orphanage, I agreed.”
Wen Zheng sneered, “Do you not understand? Or pretend not to understand?”
This was obviously a transfer of funds in the form of donations, as to whether the money was ultimately donated to the orphanage wasn’t certain.
The Wen family also donated money and supplies to the Yihe orphanage, which was donated by Ji Yuan’s personal property. Initially, it was just a simple charity, no adoption. It was a fate to meet Sisi, but unfortunately this fate didn’t last long.
After returning home, Wen Zheng told Wen Huaizhe about his findings and speculations.
The year Xingxing was lost, Wen Zheng was only eleven years old. At that time, he only thought that Xingxing was abducted by human traffickers. All these years, he and Wen Huaizhe were investigating the human traff-ickers, worrying that the traffickers had accomplices, but ignoring the strange things about the orphanage.
“Dad, what about Wen Yu’s abduction?”
Wen Huaizhe sighed, when Xingxing was five years old, Wen Zheng was only in elementary school. He didn’t want Wen Zheng to be exposed to danger at such a young age, so he never told him. Later, when he was lost, their attention was focused on finding him, and the incident of Wen Yu’s kidnapping was gradually forgotten after the kidnapper was arrested.
Wen Huaizhe’s eyes were like ice, it was his fault Xingxing got taken. But now, no one would try to hurt him. The fact that Xingxing was found should have been a big event that everyone would have been happy to hear about, and Wen Huaizhe couldn’t wait for everyone to know that his precious Xingxing was back.
But he couldn’t, until the person behind the scenes was found, his identity could only be kept secret for now. If it wasn’t for the middle-aged couple that popped up, Wen Huaizhe wouldn’t have associated it with carefully made plan. Hearing Lu Xiaofei say that Xingxing almost drowned at the river, his heart almost stopped from fear.
They had to be careful, Wen Huaizhe didn’t even tell the rest of the Wen family, his own brother and sister didn’t know, even his father wasn’t told, although this was very unfilial, but it was a matter of Xingxing’s safety, the less people knew the better.
The day they found out the truth, he would let everyone know that Xingxing was the child of the Wen family and the heir of the Wen Group.
Yan Xinyu hadn’t contacted Lu Wenxing for a while, but Lu Wenxing contacted her and said that he planned to return to China for a few days.
“I envy you so much. I also want to go back to China. The May Day holiday is coming soon.”
“Want to join us?”
“I can’t go back, it’s hard.” Yan Xinyu’s face was filled with remorse, “Can you get leave for next week?”
Yan Xinyu and Lu Wenxing weren’t in the same class, some of their two professional classes were big classes, some of the same courses would be in the big classroom together, but there were also some courses that were separate. The teachers were different and the teaching format was different.
“I missed a class last time, the old man stared at me and said that if I dare to miss a class, he won’t give me a pass” Yan Xinyu puffed up and poked the bottom of her cup with a spoon, “To be an exchange student and still fail a class, that’s not good. We can’t lose the face of our C University.”
Lu Wenxing was a little surprised, Yan Xinyu often said to him that she missed her parents and wanted to return home, he thought Yan Xinyu would be eager to go back with him, but he didn’t expect her sense of honor to be quite strong, she was a little stubborn.
“Not bad, you have ambition.” Lu Wenxing took a sip of coffee.
“Will Professor Z agree to you taking so many days off?”
“Several professors from the school are going to attend an academic seminar next week, and several professors from our major classes will be there, so it’s changed to a self-study class. As for Professor Z’s class, next week is biweekly without classes, just turn in your finished paintings by Friday.”
“That’s too lucky.”
“I heard, the premiere of ‘A Hundred Ghosts’ on the 3rd, you should attend it, right?”
“Yeah.”
Yan Xinyu smiled, “Then I’ll go squat live.”
“Speaking of which, there is another very coincidental thing.” Yan Xinyu knew that Lu Wenxing would stay off the internet when he was busy, “Do you know LULU? The high-luxury brand of the Wen Group.”
He didn’t.
Lu Wenxing only knew that it was the richest company in C City, but he didn’t know anything else.
“What’s wrong?”
“Recently, it has been very high-profile, soft and hard. I went to the official website and found that the watch was really beautiful. Unfortunately, there was no women’s model.”
“I have an insider’s tip, don’t spread it ah.”
Yan Xinyu suddenly said mysteriously, Lu Wenxing leaned forward.
“Mu company’s designs are good-looking, but in fact it’s mostly imitations of LULU’s sold out designs. Every time a new product comes out, they have to step on LULU to get attention. My mother is a big fan of LULU, all the styles of LULU jewelry, bags, ties, cuffs, etc., my family has.”
Lu Wenxing could see that Yan Xinyu’s family was well-off, but he didn’t expect it to be more trenchant than he thought, and one of the most well-known burning hobbies was collecting.
“Insider information is this?”
“No. My mom told me that LULU is moving so much this time, most likely not for the new product release but because ……” Yan Xinyu’s voice was lowered a bit.
“In the past, LULU’s new product launches were quite low-key, and even then they would still be chased by MU company trying to discredit them. But, this time LULU had a press conference, and even the selling price wasn’t announced.”
Lu Wenxing:?
“Articles, press conferences and sales meetings. One word difference.” Yan Xinyu sighed when she saw Lu Wenxing didn’t understand. “Lulu never holds a press conference. It is directly sold.”
Other brands announced the release time when they previewed the launch, LULU wouldn’t just show the new product if they really wanted to crush MU group.
“You just click on an item, there will be a flurry of product introduction and merit display, anyway, it’s all kinds of compliments, but LULU not only did not announce the release time, not even the price, not even marketing, it’s like a simple advertising display.”
“You mean the …… watch is not on sale?”
“I don’t know, ordinary people won’t know the difference, but businessmen will think farther, they don’t believe that after LULU was suppressed for that many years, it’d give up this great opportunity to counter-step.”
“Forget it, you don’t understand.” Yan Xinyu thought for a moment.
“For example, it is similar to the saying on the Internet: ‘once you loved me, but now you can’t afford me.'”
Lu Wenxing: “……”
Although it was true, the analogy seemed strange.
What Yan Xinyu didn’t say was that her family went through big ups and downs.
So she could appreciate this feeling even more.
From kindergarten onwards, she went to an expensive school, her family went bankrupt and she was forced to change schools. The family was now back on top, and those people were shamelessly coming to her like nothing happened.
Before Yan Xinyu was very petulant, then she learned to make friends that were in the same circle, she didn’t reveal their family situation in college, but her roommates treated her very sincerely.
“This turnaround battle was played beautifully.”
Soon it was the day Lu Wenxing returned home, he originally intended to give his Mom and Dad a surprise. He wanted to sneak back, but Ji Yuan called him the week before and said she wanted to see him.
Lu Wenxing had to tell Ji Yuan that he was going back to China, and then ……
Looking at the family members who came to pick up the plane in front of them, standing in a row, Lu Wenxing was lost in thought.
Not only the Wen family, but also Lu Xiaofei and Xie Nian also came.
Xie Chengfei was close to the college entrance exams, and the school didn’t want the students to be too tense, and the Labor Day could be a holiday together with the first and second year of high school. But he didn’t look too happy, especially when he saw Wen Zheng walking up to naturally take the suitcase in Lu Wenxing’s hand, that feeling of displeasure was even greater.
He still remember that Lu Wenxing first recorded a program, he came to pick him up, but Wen Zheng’s subconscious action stole Xie Chengfei’s position.
But what made Xie Chengfei angry wasn’t this, but no one told him before, Lu Wenxing found his biological father and mother.
He also felt sorry for Lu Wenxing and wanted him to find his family, but when he saw Lu Wenxing’s family standing together, he suddenly felt that he was no longer the closest person to Lu Wenxing.
“Xiao Cheng.” Lu Wenxing noticed Xie Chengfei standing aside, went over and pinched his face, “You’re finished, you’re going to be eighteen years old yet your baby fat is still there, your cool brother dream is no more.”
Then, Xie Chengfei’s face became even darker.
“What’s this? You’re happy to see me! Then I’m taking a plane back.”
Xie Chengfei snorted. Lu Xiaofei knew very well that her son was in a bad mood. Xie Chengfei didn’t know about this until he was on his way. If he had time, he could figure it out by himself.
“Ignore him, let’s go eat.” Lu Xiaofei wanted to go to Lu Wenxing’s shoulder, but Ji Yuan stopped her.
“Xiao Fei, let’s take Huaizhe’s car together. Let the three brothers sit together, young people love to play and have a conversation.”
Lu Xiaofei knew Ji Yuan’s intention, she wanted Lu Wenxing and Xie Chengfei to have a good chat, so she cooperated and said, “Then Xie Nian, we’ll sit with Ji Yuan.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
Xie Chengfei still had a problem, and didn’t want to sit with Lu Wenxing, but the back row of the business car driven by Wen Huaizhe could only sit two people.
Xie Nian and Lu Xiaofei got into the car at the same time, and closed the door sharply when Xie Chengfei looked over.
Xie Chengfei: “……”
“What are you looking at? How old are you, and you still want to follow mom and dad?” Lu Wenxing forcibly pulled Xie Chengfei into the car.
“Brother, drive quickly.”
Wen Zheng didn’t know why Lu Wenxing was so anxious, but he still started the car and followed Wen Huaizhe to drive out of the parking lot.
Once the car door was locked, Lu Wenxing looked at Xie Chengfei with a smile, “Good brother, don’t try to jump out of the car.”
“…… I didn’t want to jump out of the car.” The more he thought about it, the more angry he was.
“Really? I see you don’t want to sit with me.”
Xie Chengfei looked out of the window. Lu Wenxing sat beside him and disturbed him. “Didn’t you hope I could find my family before?”
“Because I found my biological parents, so I’m not your brother?” Lu Wenxing pinched Xie Chengfei, “Little heartless thing, I was so good to you for nothing.”
Xie Chengfei actually wanted to ask: will Lu Wenxing return to their home in the future? Is it true that he and his parents will be the only three people left during the Spring Festival?
Xie Chengfei was very contradictory. Every time he saw a couple who came to meet him, he was afraid that Lu Wenxing wouldn’t come back after he left. However, he didn’t want to let Lu Wenxing disappointed again and again.
When they arrived at the dinner place, Xie Chengfei still didn’t speak with Lu Wenxing, he wasn’t angry at Lu Wenxing, but just … his heart felt a little blocked.
After learning that Lu Wenxing was coming back to China, Ji Yuan contacted Lu Xiaofei at first, hoping they could go together to pick him up.
She guessed that Lu Wenxing would definitely want to go back to B City to visit Lu Xiaofei, so she simply brought the couple to C City to save Lu Wenxing the time of running back and forth.
Lu Xiaofei had taken care of Xingxing for so long, she had long wanted to thank them properly, but she was afraid that the other party wouldn’t accept, so why not have a meal together first, to enhance the feelings of the two families.
After all, the best outcome was this.
Ji Yuan didn’t mind Lu Wenxing calling Lu Xiaofei mother, she was even very grateful to Lu Xiaofei for giving Lu Wenxing a home.
“Xiao Zheng, take the menu to Xiao Cheng and see what he wants to eat?”
“Auntie, I’m fine with anything.”
Xie Chengfei was in a foul mood, but he was still polite to his elders, but he couldn’t be interested in the food.
When Wen Zheng took the menu from Lu Chengfei’s hand, Lu Wenxing, who was sitting next to Wen Zheng, spoke up, “I’ll order it, Xiao Cheng doesn’t eat seafood or offal.”
“They have a good relationship.” Ji Yuan smiled, “Last time I took the two of them to dinner, Xiao Cheng also kept ordering the dishes that Xingxing loved.”
Wen Zheng looked at Lu Wenxing thoughtfully.
In the past, Xingxing always bought a lot of food waiting for him at home, but most of it was what he loved to eat.
The three or four year old Lu Wenxing probably thought that what he liked to eat, everyone would also like. So, every time Ji Yuan took him to the supermarket, he would always buy a double portion of snacks.
Maybe he couldn’t help eating it on the way home, but he would never touch the one given to Wen Zheng. When Wen Zheng came back from school, he would take it out like a treasure and happily ask Wen Zheng to eat quickly.
Xingxing would sit next to him gulping, but when Wen Zheng intended to share with him, he would shake his head and say in a milky voice.
“I have eaten, this is brother’s.”
He clearly wanted to eat, but he stubbornly endured.
It was cute and funny.
But such a lovely Xingxing, Wen Zheng regretted that he didn’t grow up with him.
The two of them were talking about something, and Lu Wenxing’s eyes were still tinged with laughter.
Wen Zheng said to himself, “As long as Xingxing is happy, it’s good.”
They invited Lu Xiaofei’s family here, in fact, there was another purpose, it was to celebrate Lu Wenxing’s birthday, but they hid it from Lu Wenxing, wanting to give him a surprise, so no one at the dinner table mentioned it.
May 3.
The day of the premiere of “A 100 Ghosts”, the Wen family sponsored the premiere with the title of LULU under the Wen’s Group.
Director Wang didn’t expect that the Wen Group would approach them, but the Wen family was so wealthy and powerful that they were willing to charter the entire auditorium for them to hold the event, and they were also willing to promote “Hundred Ghosts” on the LED screen of the Wen building.
This free promotion, Director Wang didn’t know why, but he warmly invited the sponsors to participate, to arrange the best view of the center front row position.
Before going on stage, director Wang stressed again and again.
“Be sure to cue the golden backer more, each link must be compliments before and after the start, don’t forget.”
“The host and several of you leading roles, the advertising sponsors on the platform should be read out. Today’s big financier is the president of Wen’s group, and you must ‘serve’. Lu Wenxing, what are you doing?”
“Memorizing the script.”
Lu Wenxing quietly put his mobile phone into his pocket.
Yesterday, Wen Huaizhe told Lu Wenxing with an apologetic expression that he couldn’t announce his identity to the public for the time being and had to bother him for some time. Lu Wenxing actually didn’t care, he just wanted to find his biological parents, as for the outside world knowing, he didn’t care.
Results ……
Lu Wenxing just took the phone to look at the table book on the sponsors, at first it was just to understand more, instead he found …… several sponsors were the Wen’s group of companies ……
Lu Wenxing: “……”
Because he couldn’t be announced to the public, he was strongly supported in the name of sponsors?
“Wenxing, two Wen family members are present today. Perform well later. I will introduce you to them, remember to grasp the opportunity.”
“Ah?”
Lu Wenxing didn’t react for a moment.
This performance fell in the eyes of director Wang, he mistakenly thought that Lu Wenxing didn’t understand his meaning, “Do you want to continue filming in the future?”
“Yes.”
“When this drama airs, you will certainly be popular, there are many film and television companies that want to sign you, but you are abroad, they will hesitate even if they want to sign you. But Huayi Media is different, they invest generously in artists in the early stage, if you can sign into Huayi, you won’t have to worry about resources.”
Song Jiajia, who happened to be passing by: “……”
She wanted to tell the director that Huayi Media had already approached Lu Wenxing and was rejected.
Gu Yanshen who happened to know about this: “……”
Le Hanfei who happened to hear: “……”
Director Wang didn’t notice that they didn’t look right and was about to say something when he heard Lu Wenxing suddenly speak.
“Director Wang, you just said you would help me introduce Mr Wen?”
“With Mr. Wen’s approval, it’s just a matter of words for you to enter Huayi Media.”
“So, Huayi Media is also owned by the Wen Group?”
“Yes.”
Lu Wenxing: “……”
No wonder on the eve of his departure, Wen Zheng asked him why he didn’t sign with Huayi Media, at that time he didn’t think about it, he just thought that Wen Zheng happened to know about it and asked in passing.
He just didn’t expect ……
It turned out that it was Wen Zheng who found someone to sign him.